Easy Sausage and Vegetable Casserole Recipe

Sunday, 25 July 2010

Seriously good, tasty and easy sausage casserole - perfect for cold nights. A week or so ago here in the UK, Summer gave Autumn a miss and went straight back into Winter!And so my sausage casserole or whatever you might want to call it was invented.

Anyway, on with the food. I had
bit's and bobs in the fridge but nothing that would make a dinner. What I
mean is, I had one courgette and one red pepper and some celery, not
going to get fat on that are we?

I did have sausages in the freezer that along with a good dollop of mashed potato, the perfect cold weather dinner was done.

This recipe will serve 4 easily with just two more sausages but to serve 2 greedy people you will need:

6 nice fat sausages - I used Cumberland sausages

a glug of vegetable oil for frying

1 red onion - sliced

1 brown onion - sliced

1 red bell pepper - sliced

1 courgette - sliced and then halved

2 nice fat cloves of garlic - chopped

2 sticks of celery - chopped

1 tin of good quality chopped tomatoes - excluding the juice

2 teaspoons of smoked paprika

a shake or two of Worcestershire sauce

a dash or two of Tabasco sauce

a good squirt of tomato ketchup

salt and pepper to taste

a small handful of chopped parsley - just for show

How to do it:

Preheat your oven to 200c/400f or gas 6

Fry the sausages in a tiny amount of oil in a large frying pan, till they're nicely coloured, remove and put them into a lidded casserole dish. No need to fuss about them cooking right through as they will get cooked in the oven.

Now in the same pan - no need to wash it, add another tiny bit of oil and gently fry the onions, pepper, garlic, celery and courgette.

You don't need them to colour too much or fuss about them getting properly cooked as everything is going into the oven to cook through.

Now add the tin of tomatoes but without the juice along with the paprika, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and ketchup. Give it all a good stir and heat it gently. Now then have a taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.

Pour the lot into the casserole with the sausages.

Pop the lid on and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes by which time the sausages will be well cooked and the vegetables will be nice and soft.

Scatter over the chopped parsley leaves and serve with a good dollop of mashed potato.

OMG, I so want to make this! But like Jan, we're in the middle of a summer that knows no bounds. Yesterday we hit 38 degrees C and with the humidity I don't even want to know how hot it felt. On the other hand, spicy food is a good way to cool down, I'm thinking of making this with some Moroccan merguez sausage and a spoon or two of harissa mixed it. Give the English dish a Middle Eastern slant, and pass the ice water (or the arak)!